Blue Summer
'' Blue Summer ''is the nineteenth book in the Middle School Experience series. It chronicles the story of the girls' summer, including Chloe meeting her late father's family in England, Leah and Regina attending a Christian/sports sleep-away camp, and Jessie's family experiencing a family tragedy. It's another summer vacation, which means its another season of fun in the sun! The girls are excited to be traveling to fun places like England and doing fun things like camping. Sadly, an unfortunate event threatens to ruin one girl's summer. Will this event cause this girl to have the worst summer ever? Summary The story begins with Chloe and a few of her friends talking about their summer vacations. Gail is going to cheerleading camp in Texas with her cousin Victoria. Leah grumbles about having to be sent to sleep-away camp for the summer. Regina announces that she is going to the same camp Leah is. Chloe is also interested in attending camp, but Jessie can't go because she has a family reunion later in the summer. Later at home, Chloe researches the camp and decides to check it out. She asks her mother if she can go, but Shannon announces that they are going to spend the summer in the U.K. so they can visit Shannon's late husband's family, whom the Winters haven't seen in a while. Chloe is a little disappointed that she won't be able to see her friends all summer, but she is optimistic about her summer plans. Jessie starts out having a great vacation. She spends the first few days of it having fun with her friends, her soccer teammates, her boyfriend Freddy, and her grandmother Rosa. One summer day, Jessie comes home from her neighborhood pool to see Rosa cooking. They converse a little before Jessie goes upstairs to shower. On the way, she runs into her mother, who is worried that Rosa is cooking because she had acted strangely in the morning; however, she shrugs it off. At dinnertime, the enchiladas that Rosa had cooked earlier are a big hit to the rest of the family, but Jessie notices that her grandmother is barely eating. Rosa decides to leave the table and take a nap, but after walking a few feet, she passes out on the floor. Jessie's family panics, and Cecelia tells Jessie to call 911. The paramedics arrive to take Rosa to the hospital, and Jessie's parents go with them, leaving Jessie at home alone. Late at night, Cecelia calls Jessie and informs her that Rosa had had a heart attack and will be in the hospital for a while. Jessie runs to her room in tears, afraid that the worst is going to happen. Chloe and Shannon arrive in London. At the airport, Shannon's brother-in-law, Harvey Gill, arrives to pick them up. When they arrive at the Gills' home, Shannon and Chloe reunite with Harvey's wife Nina and their teenage children Oliver and Layla. The twins act awkward around Chloe. Shannon and Chloe also meet Richard Lawrence, who is Finley Winters' (Chloe's father) oldest friend and who is staying with the Gills. Richard and Shannon hit it off, and Chloe begins to feel uncomfortable. Chloe feels awkward around everyone in the house and begins to doubt whether or not this trip was a good idea, but she still hopes to make the most of it. Meanwhile, back in Georgia, Leah and Regina attend Camp Stinging Shadow. Leah has very negative about her summer plans, but Regina is more optimistic. To both of their dismays, the camp is more athletic-based than they had hoped. The camp is also Christian-based and most of the campers attend several Christian private schools around the area. Leah and Regina are in the same cabin, but they share the room with four private-school girls who are best friends and into lacrosse. Their bunkmates are extremely cliquey around them, and so are most of the campers. The next morning, Leah is surprised and annoyed when the camp is wakened at six o'clock in the morning by a trumpet horn. Leah wants to sleep in, but her counselor, Hope, tells her that the bathrooms are shared between cabins and that everyone has to be dressed for morning prayer by eight. In the bathroom, Leah hops into the shower, which comes out cold; one of the lacrosse girls had used up the hot water. After morning prayer and breakfast, the girls are thrust into activities. Leah quickly sours on the camp due to the vigorous activities and her bunkmates' snotty behaviors. Jessie awaits for Rosa to return from the hospital, and is upset when days go by without a return. One day, she visits Rosa and becomes optimistic when she sees that her grandmother is slowly starting to get better. During the visit, the talk about the upcoming family reunion, but Rosa mentions that this will be the last time she will see her family before she passes away. Upset, Jessie walks out of the room and goes to the bathroom to cry. When she returns to Rosa's room, the door is closed, and Jessie's father informs her that Rosa is experiencing chest pains again. Daniel sends Jessie home with her aunt Sofia, something that Jessie doesn't want to do. At home, Jessie tries to keep her mind off of her grandmother by watching YouTube videos and calling her friends. She awakes in the middle of the night to hear her aunt crying. When Jessie goes to check on her aunt, Sofia informs her that Rosa had just passed away. Jessie is devastated that she hadn't been at her grandmother's bedside and cries with her aunt. The next day, Cecelia emails Alex, Chloe, and Freddy about the sad news and asks them to attend the funeral. Chloe excuses herself from her family's brunch to video-chat with Alex about the situation. They talk about what they can do for Jessie to help her through this difficult time. They decide to gather their friends together to craft a memory book and create a bag filled with personal items that represented Jessie and Rosa's relationship. Regina is a bit disappointed by Camp Stinging Shadow due to the activities and the cliqueyness of the campers but is beginning to become a little more optimistic when she bonds with her counselor, Hope, and befriends two girls in another cabin named Marina and Sydney. Regina tells her new friends about what had happened to Jessie, and the girls decide to meet up on the campsite and pray for Jessie and her family; however, Callie taunts Regina for her faith. Regina later asks Leah to join her and her friends in prayer, but Leah refuses--she doesn't want anything to with Camp Stinging Shadow. Later, the campers in Regina's age group meet up for Bible Study. The lesson, which involves the campers watching a clip from "The Breakfast Club", is about change. Regina, Leah, Marina, and Sydney seem to be the only people in the class paying attention; everyone else looks bored and is fooling around. When the lacrosse girls are scolded for being loud and obnoxious, Haley finds a way to blame Regina and Leah for their behavior. Regina almost snaps, but Leah finally does. She calls the lacrosse girls bitches and denounces the camp before storming out of the room; Regina follows her. Outside, Leah blames Regina for her summer going badly, and Regina snaps at her for being close-minded and shallow about the camping experience before walking away. Jessie falls into a depression after Rosa's death. Her depression also includes mood swings, which include being hostile towards her parents for sending her home from the hospital on the day of Rosa's death. When she sees her parents packing Rosa's things away, she gets upset and decides to hang out with Freddy just to get out of the house. They decide to go to an ice cream store, but when Freddy attempts to ask Jessie how everything at home is going, she decides to go back home. In England, Chloe is not enjoying herself. She quickly figures out that her cousins are snobby hipsters, and it seems like Richard is romantically interested in her mom, which she doesn't like. One night, the family goes to dinner. Layla and Oliver talk about sneaking alcohol to a party and get angry when Chloe attempts to tell their parents about it. When Richard tries to make conversation with Chloe, she is rude to him, and Shannon is not happy. Layla tells Richard that Chloe is acting this way for attention, and Chloe gets upset. Shannon scolds her, and Chloe snaps and runs outside in tears. When Shannon goes outside to talk to her, Chloe tells her that she wants to go home. The day of Rosa's funeral arrives. Jessie and her parents meet Alex, Chloe, and Freddy at the church where the funeral is being held; Jessie notices that Chloe looks as miserable as she is (due to her feelings about England and the fact that she doesn't like funerals). Inside the church, Jessie catches up with her cousin Cynthia before they sit down in the chapel. Jessie ends up hating every minute of the funeral. Near the end, her mom asks all the guests to present speeches. Most of the speeches end with the presenters crying. Chloe's speech starts out sad at first, but she reassures everyone that everything will get better. Chloe gives Jessie the courage to present her speech, which goes very well. It is so moving that Jessie begins crying; she cries so much that her friends have to take her out of the chapel. After the funeral, Chloe, Alex, and Freddy go home to give Jessie some time with her family. Chloe is happy to be back in Georgia for the rest of the summer, but after going to the funeral, she begins thinking about the limited time she had spent with her father before she died, and begins to feel bad about being hostile to her family in England. She decides to Skype her mom and tell her how she feels. Her mom tells her that Nina and her family feel bad that they pushed her away and they want to apologize. Chloe apologizes for acting like a brat around them. She finally confesses to Shannon that she isn't comfortable that she is dating Richard. Shannon tells her that she is not dating Richard, but if she was, she wants Chloe to be happy about the situation. Chloe and her mom talk some more and Chloe starts to feel better about the situation. Leah's time at camp isn't getting any better due to the lacrosse girls still harassing her and Regina now being mad at her. Ever since her profanity-laced rant a few weeks earlier, the entire camp despises her and makes her feel even more like an outsider. In the mess hall, Leah sits by herself since the rest of her bunkmates hate her. Hope decides to sit with her, and Leah confesses to her that she doesn't like camp at all. To her surprise, Hope sympathizes with her and reveals that Camp Stinging Shadow has been like this for years. She says that the amount of girls in Leah's age group have decreased from last year. However, Hope tells Leah that she is part of the problem because she refused to participate in anything and she didn't seem interested in making new friends. Leah realizes that Regina had been right about her being shallow, and after lunch, decides to talk to Regina. She apologizes for her negative behavior about camp and is willing to give it another chance, despite camp being over in a few days. Regina accepts her apology and tells her that Leah's outburst at Bible Study hit some of the campers hard and some of them are willing to mingle and meet new people. They decide to make the most of the rest of their time at camp. Things have mostly gone back to normal for Jessie, but she is still sad about the loss of her grandmother. A week before school starts, Cecelia decides to take Jessie school shopping, but Jessie, who had already bought materials for school, is confused by the sudden shopping spree. Jessie reluctantly decides to look for clothes, but doesn't find anything suitable. When Jessie arrives back home, she is surprised to see her friends and her father there. They present the scrapbook and a bag filled with cards and Rosa's important personal items. Jessie is happy that her friends had done this for her, and while she still isn't over the loss of her grandmother, she knows that she will be able to go on with her life with Rosa there in spirit. Characters (in order of appearance) * Chloe Winters * Gail Edwards * Leah Harrison * Jessie Sanchez * Regina Daniels * Shannon Winters * Rosa Garcia * Cecelia Sanchez * Daniel Sanchez * Harvey Gill * Nina Gill * Layla Gill * Oliver Gill * Richard Lawrence * Kelly Harrison * Brandon Harrison * Hope * Elena * Brianna * Haley * Sofia * Alex Sanders * Callie * Freddy Hamilton * Cindy Perez * Eliza Cantrell Trivia *This story was rewritten four times. First edition, 2008. Fourth edition, 2017. *At first, this story was mostly going to be about Alex being annoyed at her friends for not taking Jessie's surprise seriously, but the creator despised that plot and rewrote it so it could be more logical. Category:Stories